Season series: This is the second of three meetings. In their first showdown on Feb 11 in St. Louis, the Avalanche prevailed 1-0 in overtime.

Big Story: This is the first of a home-and-home series, which will conclude on Tuesday in St. Louis. The red-hot Blues are currently in the playoff picture in the Western Conference, but every point is crucial as the fourth- through 10th-place teams are separated by eight points.

Team Scope:

Blues: The Blues have warmed up at the right time, rolling through opponents throughout the month of April with nine victories in the past 11 games. They are just one point out of fourth place in the West as they chase home-ice advantage in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Brian Elliott has played a big role in the team’s recent success as St. Louis has only allowed 14 goals in 11 games. Elliott has two shutouts in his past three appearances.

"The whole story for me here for the month of April has been defense and goaltending," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They've done an outstanding job. ... To me, defense and goaltending ... I was just thinking watching us play, we're not easy to play against in our own end. You're not going to get any free looks."

Avalanche: Colorado concludes a four-game homestand Sunday. The Avs are 1-1-1 and will attempt to bounce back from a 4-1 loss to Edmonton on Friday night.

“When you’re having the kind of year we’re having and you make those kinds of mistakes, it always ends up in the back of your net for some reason," defenseman Shane O'Brien said of Friday's loss. "There’s a lot of character in this room. The boys haven’t quit. We’re staying together. That’s impressive. We’re working hard every day. Obviously, no one’s happy, and it’s frustrating.”

However, Colorado has been successful on the penalty kill lately, allowing just one power play goal in its past six contests. The Avalanche rank first in the NHL in home penalty killing percentage at 91.9 percent (79-for-86).

Who's hot: Elliott has allowed one goal in his past three appearances. … PA Parenteau notched the lone goal for Colorado on Friday and continues to lead the Avalanche in scoring with 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists).

Injury report: The Blues are without forwards Scott Nichol (lower body), T.J. Oshie (foot), Jamie Langenbrunner (hip) and goalie Jaroslav Halak (lower body). … Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson has missed the past three games with a hand injury and is questionable for Sunday.

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Last edited by dmiles2186 on Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think a ROW clinches a playoff spot for us. 2 points makes it so Detroit is the only team outside of the top 8 that could tie us. First tie breaker is ROW. Tonight could be our 22nd. If Detroit wins out w/o a SO, they would end with 22, tied with us if we don't get another point. 2nd tiebreaker is H2H, but the first game in Detroit doesn't count because of unbalanced schedule. So, we would win that 5-3.

My fear is the Blues let up on the gas because hey- it's only Colorado. Let's hope that's not the case, and the defense remains solid and hopefully we break the 3-goal (!) barrier. We need to keep our current pace rolling right into the playoffs.

This team's weakness may be their inability to trade/bench David Perron. He is a liability every time he is on the ice and he has been completely horrid tonight. We're finding the scoring touch, but it's not going to pay off when you're giving up multiple softies.

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That was a sorry display tonight. I realized as I sat in the top row tonight that we havent won in Denver since April of 2009. I guess all those empty seats can be pretty intimidating. Good contingency of Blues fans in Denver, we certainly were the majority in the cheap seats.

I can't blame Elliot for this one at all. The man with the puck was the only one not being guarded all night. He could just skate from the blue line to the slot untouched, all night.

It's the Avs. Us being beaten by a bottom dweller is actually a compliment: Most teams at the top are usually only beaten during the regular season by the last place teams, so I feel ok by this. One game, things fell apart. Hitch Needs to seriously start benching people and being a douche.

It was one game, I'm not too concerned. There were breakdowns for sure, but after 3 straight wins, I'm not going to go into panic mode. I understand the Blues aren't playing as well as they should be (even with the wins), but they're also finding ways to win even when they aren't in top form. Besides, we'll see the Avs tomorrow night at home, they've got a shot to turn things around there.

A follow up to my previous post...on a more concerning note: I've harped and harped on our passing skills and look last night...at one point in the third period (before the game was over) they put up a stat with Turnovers...us 15 them 5 .......15.....is that a record?

The knock on Hitch, I think, was that he was too much of a douche in his previous stops. Yes, he got results, but his douchebaggery got to the players and they (and the front office) would sour on him. As I recall, a lot of you were upset when he was hired because of a notion that he was too much of a douche. Now we're playing far below ability on account of the fact that he's not being enough of a douche. I agree, he needs to go back to being a douche, but at this point I'd actually wait until the playoffs start. Game 1, bench the shit out of Perron, for starters. That would be the ultimate douchey thing to do, and it would certainly send a message that hey, we don't trust your primadonna ass in an important playoff game when we're trying to get out to an early lead in the series.

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